Ears Wide Open
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Book/Editorial
Print/Brand Communications
Designer(s)
Nicole Lee
Duration
29 Weeks
Recognitions
Overview
We often play music while we are performing other tasks, therefore our emotional connection and remembrance of songs are limited. However, songs have the ability to transport us to an exact time and/or place when experienced in a specialized music-listening setting. What kinds of emotional responses can music induce in relation to our past experiences, significant events, personal relationships, etc.? Furthermore, is it possible to empathize with others’ emotions not having the same relationship to the music? A communal flip book of collected statements discusses emotional connections to specific songs based on personal life experiences.
Objective
Through an empathic emotional interpretation, abstract paintings were created to visually translate each statement. Every spread includes scannable codes (for Apple Music and Spotify) above blank spaces dedicated for book owner’s and friends to contribute their visualizations. Paintings and statements are fully obscured, encouraging readers to actively listen, meditate, and self-reflect without any emotional or visual influence. They draw what they see/hear/feel first, then reveal the song’s visualization and submitted statement and are able to note similarities and differences.
Book Flow
Submissions are categorized by key emotions stated, creating a smooth emotional flow when reading from start to finish. Readers are not expected to flip through the book in order; however, this information is displayed in the index serving as a guide.
Ears Wide Open
This is the part in a book where you get to the chapter that the book is named after (or like when Tony Stark said, “That’s the endgame”, foreshadowing the final movie). I decided on this name after brainstorming a bunch of puns about listening and other cheesy things. It’s a play on ‘eyes wide open’ and more importantly, ‘arms wide open’—a nod to the overarching theme of empathy in this project. Two other subtitles stemmed from this, serving as instructions and a description of the book. The goal for this project was to create a communal flip book filled with collected statements discussing emotional connections to specific songs paired with visualizations fuelled through empathy. Active listening is encouraged through a dedicated space for readers to contribute their drawings directly inside the book.
